Selected Abstracts

ETHOLOGY, Issue 12 2000Eduardo Fernandez-Duque
In monogamous species, an abiding relationship between a specific adult male and a specific adult female is a defining feature of the social system.
The interactions between these individuals are influenced by many factors, including not only the history of their relationship (for example, development of a mutual bond), but also the immediate effects of the prevailing social context (for example, presence and sex of extra-pair conspecifics).
In this study we examined the effects of an existing bond and of social context on interactions between adult heterosexual pairs of the monogamous titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch).
Twelve adult males and 12 adult females were tested with their cagemates and with an unfamiliar partner of the opposite sex in five social contexts: (1) mated male,female pair; (2) unfamiliar pair; (3) single female; (4) single male; and (5) empty stimulus cage.
Results show that mated pairs were more affiliative than unfamiliar pairs and differentiated social contexts more sharply.
Males were more responsive to context than females.
Distance between mates was less and physical contact was more frequent in the presence of male,female pairs or a single male, than in the presence of a single female or an empty cage.
These findings suggest that the presence and sex of strangers have a stronger influence on male,female interactions when the pair has an existing relationship.
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Metapopulation ecology in the sea: from Levins' model to marine ecology and fisheries science

FISH AND FISHERIES, Issue 2 2004Jacob P Kritzer
Abstract
Marine and fisheries scientists are increasingly using metapopulation concepts to better understand and model their focal systems.
Consequently, they are considering what defines a metapopulation.
One perspective on this question emphasizes the importance of extinction probability in local populations.
This view probably stems from the focus on extinction in Levins' original metapopulation model, but places unnecessary emphasis on extinction,recolonization dynamics.
Metapopulation models with more complex structure than Levins' patch-occupancy model and its variants allow a broader range of population phenomena to be examined, such as changes in population size, age structure and genetic structure.
Analyses along these lines are critical in fisheries science, where presence,absence resolution is far too coarse to understand stock dynamics in a meaningful way.
These more detailed investigations can, but need not, aim to assess extinction risk or deal with extinction-prone local populations.
Therefore, we emphasize the coupling of spatial scales as the defining feature of metapopulations.
It is the degree of demographic connectivity that characterizes metapopulations, with the dynamics of local populations strongly dependent upon local demographic processes, but also influenced by a nontrivial element of external replenishment.
Therefore, estimating rates of interpopulation exchange must be a research priority.
We contrast metapopulations with other spatially structured populations that differ in the degree of local closure of their component populations.
We conclude with consideration of the implications of metapopulation structure for spatially explicit management, particularly the design of marine protected area networks.
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FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2010Ulrich Krotz
Regularized intergovernmentalism refers to a distinct kind of foreign policy practice that connects and intertwines foreign policy processes in particular ways.
This paper puts forth a concept to properly capture and expose such distinctive foreign policy realities characterizing certain periods and places.
With this concept, the article systematically scrutinizes the intergovernmental fabric of bilateral Franco,German relations from 1963 to 2009.
The characteristic features of Franco,German regularized intergovernmentalism represent a crucial foreign policy connection, foundational for European affairs of the past half century and a defining feature of Europe's post-war order and regional governance.
Exploring key aspects of what it is that links France and Germany in particular ways, this paper offers a historically deeply grounded constitutive analysis.
Based on its constitutive inquiries, the papers points at new possibilities of causal theorizing and explores some of regularized intergovernmentalism's hypothesized effects and limitations.
Franco,German intergovernmental affairs may be the most developed instance of this practice.
But regularized bilateral intergovernmentalism is not a Franco,German idiosyncrasy.
Rather, it is an important and apparently growing approach to structuring foreign policy conduct, and seems an increasingly prominent aspect of how the world is organized.
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The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006TOM SLATER
Recent years have seen an extraordinary resurgence of interest in the process of gentrification, accompanied by a surge of articles published on the topic.
This article looks at some recent literature , both scholarly and popular , and considers the reasons why the often highly critical perspectives on gentrification that we saw in earlier decades have dwindled.
Whilst a number of reasons could be put forward, three in particular are discussed.
First, the resilience of theoretical and ideological squabbles over the causes of gentrification, at the expense of examining its effects; second, the demise of displacement as a defining feature of the process and as a research question; and third, the pervasive influence of neoliberal urban policies of ,social mix' in central city neighbourhoods.
It is argued that the ,eviction' of critical perspectives from a field in which they were once plentiful has serious implications for those at risk from gentrification, and that reclaiming the term from those who have sugarcoated what was not so long ago a ,dirty word' (Smith, 1996) is essential if political challenges to the process can be effective.
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Human Rights of Migrants: Challenges of the New Decade

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 6 2001Patrick A. Taran
This review summarizes main trends, issues, debates, actors and initiatives regarding recognition and extension of protection of the human rights of migrants.
Its premise is that the rule of law and universal notions of human rights are essential foundations for democratic society and social peace.
Evidence demonstrates that violations of migrants' human rights are so widespread and commonplace that they are a defining feature of international migration today.
About 150 million persons live outside their countries; in many States, legal application of human rights norms to non-citizens is inadequate or seriously deficient, especially regarding irregular migrants.
Extensive hostility against, abuse of and violence towards migrants and other non-nationals has become much more visible worldwide in recent years.
Research, documentation and analysis of the character and extent of problems and of effective remedies remain minimal.
Resistance to recognition of migrants' rights is bound up in exploitation of migrants in marginal, low status, inadequately regulated or illegal sectors of economic activity.
Unauthorized migrants are often treated as a reserve of flexible labour, outside the protection of labour safety, health, minimum wage and other standards, and easily deportable.
Evidence on globalization points to worsening migration pressures in many parts of the world.
Processes integral to globalization have intensified disruptive effects of modernization and capitalist development, contributing to economic insecurity and displacement for many.
Extension of principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights culminated in the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
With little attention, progress in ratifications was very slow until two years ago.
A global campaign revived attention; entry into force is likely in 2001.
Comparative analysis notes that ILO migrant worker Conventions have generally achieved objectives but States have resisted adoption of any standards on treatment of non-nationals.
A counter-offensive against human rights as universal, indivisible and inalienable underlies resistance to extension of human rights protection to migrants.
A parallel trend is deliberate association of migration and migrants with criminality.
Trafficking has emerged as a global theme contextualizing migration in a framework of combatting organized crime and criminality, subordinating human rights protections to control and anti-crime measures.
Intergovernmental cooperation on migration "management" is expanding rapidly, with functioning regional intergovernmental consultative processes in all regions, generally focused on strengthening inter-state cooperation in controlling and preventing irregular migration through improved border controls, information sharing, return agreements and other measures.
Efforts to defend human rights of migrants and combat xenophobia remain fragmented, limited in impact and starved of resources.
Nonetheless, NGOs in all regions provide orientation, services and assistance to migrants, public education and advocating respect for migrants rights and dignity.
Several international initiatives now highlight migrant protection concerns, notably the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, the Global Campaign promoting the 1990 UN Convention, UN General Assembly proclamation of International Migrants Day, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia, anti-discrimination activity by ILO, and training by IOM.
Suggestions to governments emphasize the need to define comprehensive, coordinated migration policy and practice based on economic, social and development concerns rather than reactive control measures to ensure beneficial migration, social harmony, and dignified treatment of nationals and non-nationals.
NGOs, businesses, trade unions, and religious groups are urged to advocate respect for international standards, professionalize services and capacities, take leadership in opposing xenophobic behaviour, and join international initiatives.
Need for increased attention to migrants rights initiatives and inter-agency cooperation by international organizations is also noted.
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Molecular regulation of postsynaptic differentiation at the neuromuscular junction

IUBMB LIFE, Issue 11 2005Raghavan Madhavan
Abstract
The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is a synapse that develops between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber.
A defining feature of NMJ development in vertebrates is the re-distribution of muscle acetylcholine (ACh) receptors (AChRs) following innervation, which generates high-density AChR clusters at the postsynaptic membrane and disperses aneural AChR clusters formed in muscle before innervation.
This process in vivo requires MuSK, a muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase that triggers AChR re-distribution when activated; rapsyn, a muscle protein that binds and clusters AChRs; agrin, a nerve-secreted heparan-sulfate proteoglycan that activates MuSK; and ACh, a neurotransmitter that stimulates muscle and also disperses aneural AChR clusters.
Moreover, in cultured muscle cells, several additional muscle- and nerve-derived molecules induce, mediate or participate in AChR clustering and dispersal.
In this review we discuss how regulation of AChR re-distribution by multiple factors ensures aggregation of AChRs exclusively at NMJs.
IUBMB Life, 57: 719-730, 2005
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Relative longevity and field metabolic rate in birds

JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2008A. P. MØLLER
Abstract
Metabolism is a defining feature of all living organisms, with the metabolic process resulting in the production of free radicals that can cause permanent damage to DNA and other molecules.
Surprisingly, birds, bats and other organisms with high metabolic rates have some of the slowest rates of senescence begging the question whether species with high metabolic rates also have evolved mechanisms to cope with damage induced by metabolism.
To test whether species with the highest metabolic rates also lived the longest I determined the relationship between relative longevity (maximum lifespan), after adjusting for annual adult survival rate, body mass and sampling effort, and mass-specific field metabolic rate (FMR) in 35 species of birds.
There was a strongly positive relationship between relative longevity and FMR, consistent with the hypothesis.
This conclusion was robust to statistical control for effects of potentially confounding variables such as age at first reproduction, latitude and migration distance, and similarity in phenotype among species because of common phylogenetic descent.
Therefore, species of birds with high metabolic rates senesce more slowly than species with low metabolic rates.
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THE JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2008JOEL B. DACKS
ABSTRACT.
Cysteine proteases are crucial for general lysosomal function and for the pathogenic mechanisms of many protistan parasites.
Cathepsin B cysteine proteases are currently defined by the presence of the "occluding loop" motif and have been best characterized from humans and their parasites.
Though related to a variety of pathogenic excavate flagellates, oxymonads are themselves commensals.
While studying this cell biologically aberrant protist lineage, we identified 11 different cathepsin B homologues.
These were found to be expressed, at comparable levels to common house-keeping genes, such as elongation factor 1-,, ,-tubulin, ,-tubulin, and glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase.
Primary structure examination of the cathepsin B homologues identified putative signal peptide sequences, and the pre-, pro-, and mature domains of the protein.
However, the occluding loop motif was either partially or entirely absent.
Comparative genomics, sequence alignment, and phylogenetics of cathepsin sequences from across the diversity of eukaryotes demonstrated that absence of the occluding loop is not a feature exclusive to oxymonads, but is relatively common, suggesting that the "occluding loop" should no longer be used as the defining feature of the cathepsin B subfamily.
Overall, this report identifies an abundant protein family in oxymonads, and provides insight both into the evolution and classification of cathepsin B cysteine proteases.
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Diverse transport modes by the solute carrier 26 family of anion transporters

THE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 10 2009Ehud Ohana
The solute carrier 26 (SLC26) transporters are anion transporters with diverse substrate specificity.
Several members are ubiquitous while others show limited tissue distribution.
They are expressed in many epithelia and to the extent known, play a central role in anion secretion and absorption.
Members of the family are primarily Cl, transporters, although some members transport mainly SO42,, Cl,, HCO3, or I,.
A defining feature of the family is their functional diversity.
Slc26a1 and Slc26a2 function as specific SO42, transporters while Slc26a4 functions as an electroneutral Cl,/I,/HCO3, exchanger.
Slc26a3 and Slc26a6 function as coupled electrogenic Cl,/HCO3, exchangers or as bona fide anion channels.
SLC26A7 and SLC26A9 function exclusively as Cl, channels.
This short review discusses the functional diversity of the SLC26 transporters.
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New Labour's Escape from Class Politics

THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2006James E. Cronin
The connection between trade unions and parties of the left is traditionally close across Europe.
In Britain the link is more than close: it is intimate, defining, and constitutive of what the Labour Party is and has been since its inception.
This link allowed the party to survive during bad times and helped it to govern during good times, but during the 1970s it became less helpful, as policies backed by the unions not only failed to work but were also repudiated by union members themselves in what came to be known as the "winter of discontent" in 1979.
New Labour was therefore built on the understanding that its past connection to the unions, and hence to a particular sort of "class politics," needed to be rethought and renegotiated.
It is the new defining feature of the Labour Party.
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Autism and other neuropsychiatric symptoms are prevalent in individuals with MeCP2 duplication syndrome,

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 6 2009Melissa B. Ramocki MD
Objective
There have been no objective assessments to determine whether boys with MECP2 duplication have autism or whether female carriers manifest phenotypes.
This study characterizes the clinical and neuropsychiatric phenotypes of affected boys and carrier females.
Methods
Eight families (9 males and 9 females) with MECP2 duplication participated.
A detailed history, physical examination, electroencephalogram, developmental evaluation, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, and Autism Diagnostic Interview,Revised were performed for each boy.
Carrier females completed the Symptom Checklist-90-R, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire, and detailed medical and mental health histories.
Size and gene content of each duplication were determined by array comparative genome hybridization.
X-chromosome inactivation patterns were analyzed using leukocyte DNA.
MECP2 and IRAK1 RNA levels were quantified from lymphoblast cell lines, and western blots were performed to assess MeCP2 protein levels.
Results
All of the boys demonstrated mental retardation and autism.
Poor expressive language, gaze avoidance, repetitive behaviors, anxiety, and atypical socialization were prevalent.
Female carriers had psychiatric symptoms, including generalized anxiety, depression, and compulsions that preceded the birth of their children.
The majority exhibited features of the broad autism phenotype and had higher nonverbal compared to verbal reasoning skills.
Interpretation
Autism is a defining feature of the MECP2 duplication syndrome in boys.
Females manifest phenotypes despite 100% skewing of X-inactivation and normal MECP2 RNA levels in peripheral blood.
Analysis of the duplication size, MECP2 and IRAK1 RNA levels, and MeCP2 protein levels revealed that most of the traits in affected boys are likely due to the genomic region spanning of MECP2 and IRAK1.
The phenotypes observed in carrier females may be secondary to tissue-specific dosage alterations and require further study.
Ann Neurol 2009;66:771,782
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THE ENCYCLOPÉDIE AND THE IDEA OF THE DECORATIVE ARTS

ART HISTORY, Issue 2 2005Élisabeth Lavezzi
The decorative arts do not appear as a category of useful knowledge in Diderot's and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie but those arts now called decorative arts, such as cabinet-making, were central to the eighteenth-century Parisian economy and a defining feature of a publication which set itself the task of raising the status of the useful arts.
This essay explores the antecedents of the notion of the decorative arts in the history of ideas.
By comparing Renaissance, baroque and enlightened art theory, it charts the faltering emergence of a definition of arts such as marquetry that no longer sees them as either materially or procedurally dependent on the finer arts of painting or architecture.
In the subtle shifts of meaning the object gives way to the maker as principal element upon which the definition of an art turns.
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AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Neil W Savage
SUMMARY
Burning mouth syndrome is an oral dysaesthesia presenting as a burning sensation of the tongue and less frequently other oral and peri-oral sites.
There may be other coincident symptoms and signs, but the defining feature is the absence of any obvious organic cause.
Because of this the condition frequently remains unrecognized for extended periods with a variable progression of symptoms.
The current paper describes the complex presentation of burning mouth syndrome with the major aim of increasing recognition.
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Designing mouse behavioral tasks relevant to autistic-like behaviors,

DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 4 2004Jacqueline N. Crawley
Abstract
The importance of genetic factors in autism has prompted the development of mutant mouse models to advance our understanding of biological mechanisms underlying autistic behaviors.
Mouse models of human neuropsychiatric diseases are designed to optimize (1) face validity, i.e., resemblance to the human symptoms; (2) construct validity, i.e., similarity to the underlying causes of the disease; and (3) predictive validity, i.e., expected responses to treatments that are effective in the human disease.
There is a growing need for mouse behavioral tasks with all three types of validity for modeling the symptoms of autism.
We are in the process of designing a set of tasks with face validity for the defining features of autism: deficits in appropriate reciprocal social interactions, deficits in verbal social communication, and high levels of ritualistic repetitive behaviors.
Social approach is tested in an automated three-chambered apparatus that offers the subject a choice between a familiar environment, a novel environment, and a novel environment containing a stranger mouse.
Preference for social novelty is tested in the same apparatus, with a choice between the start chamber, the chamber containing a familiar mouse, and the chamber containing a stranger mouse.
Social communication is evaluated by measuring the ultrasonic distress vocalizations emitted by infant mouse pups and the parental response of retrieving the pup to the nest.
Resistance to change in ritualistic repetitive behaviors is modeled by forcing a change in habit, including reversal of the spatial location of a reinforcer in a T-maze task and in the Morris water maze.
Mouse behavioral tasks that may model additional features of autism are discussed, including tasks relevant to anxiety, seizures, sleep disturbances, and sensory hypersensitivity.
Applications of these tests include (1) behavioral phenotyping of transgenic and knockout mice with mutations in genes relevant to autism, (2) characterization of mutant mice derived from random chemical mutagenesis, (3) DNA microarray analyses of genes in inbred strains of mice that differ in social interaction, social communication and resistance to change in habit, and (4) evaluation of proposed therapeutics for the treatment of autism.
Published 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2004;10:248,258.
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LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2001Rizwaan Jameel Mokal
The first part of this paper asks if the Creditors' Bargain Model, long employed by insolvency scholars as the starting point for many an analysis, can explain or justify even the most distinctive and fundamental feature of insolvency law.
After examining the defining features of the model's construction, the role of self-interest and consent in it, and its ex ante position, it is concluded that the Bargain model can neither explain nor legitimate the coercive collective liquidation regime.
The second part of the paper develops an alternative model to analyse and justify insolvency law.
The starting premise is that all (but only) those affected by issues peculiarly governed by insolvency law are to be given a choice in selecting the principles which would determine their rights and obligations.
Once these parties have been identified, they are to be given equal weight in the selection process, since their legal status (whether they are employees, secured or unsecured creditors, etc), wealth, cognitive abilities, and bargaining strength are all morally irrelevant in framing rules of justice.
This part of the paper introduces the notion of a constructive attribute, characteristics this society accepts its citizens should have in their role as legislators.
So all parties affected by insolvency issues are regarded as free, equal, and reasonable.
The model sketched out in this part of the article requires all principles to be selected from its choice position.
Here, all the parties are deprived of any knowledge of personal attributes, and must reason rationally.
It is shown that parties in the choice position would in fact choose the principles laying down the automatic stay on unsecured claims.
The paper concludes with the demonstration that because of the construction of the choice position and the constructive attributes of the parties bargaining in it, the principles chosen are fair and just, and chosen in exercise of the parties' autonomy.
As it happens, they are also efficient.
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The model of ethnic democracy: Israel as a Jewish and democratic state

NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 4 2002Sammy Smooha
The liberal democratic nation,state is on the decline in the West as a result of globalisation, regionalisation, universalisation of minority rights, multiculturalism and the rise of ethno,nationalism.
While Western countries are decoupling the nation,state and shifting toward multicultural civic democracy, other countries are consolidating an alternative non,civic form of a democratic state that is identified with and subservient to a single ethnic nation.
This model, ,ethnic democracy', is presented; its defining features, the circumstances leading to it and the conditions for its stability are elaborated upon; and it is applied to Israel.
Contrary to its self,image and international reputation as a Western liberal democracy, Israel is an ethnic democracy in which the Jews appropriate the state and make it a tool for advancing their national security, demography, public space, culture and interests.
At the same time, Israel is a democracy that extends various kinds of rights to 1 million Palestinian Arab citizens (16 per cent of the population) who are perceived as a threat.
The criticisms against the general model and its applicability to Israel are discussed.
The model has already been applied to other countries, but more applications are needed in order to develop it further.
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Cutaneous allodynia in the migraine population

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2008Richard B. Lipton MD
Objective
To develop and validate a questionnaire for assessing cutaneous allodynia (CA), and to estimate the prevalence and severity of CA in the migraine population.
Methods
Migraineurs (n = 11,388) completed the Allodynia Symptom Checklist, assessing the frequency of allodynia symptoms during headache.
Response options were never (0), rarely (0), less than 50% of the time (1), ,50% of the time (2), and none (0).
We used item response theory to explore how well each item discriminated CA.
The relations of CA to headache features were examined.
Results
All 12 questions had excellent item properties.
The greatest discrimination occurred with CA during "taking a shower" (discrimination = 2.54), wearing a necklace (2.39) or ring (2.31), and exposure to heat (2.1) or cold (2.0).
The factor analysis demonstrated three factors: thermal, mechanical static, and mechanical dynamic.
Based on the psychometrics, we developed a scale distinguishing no CA (scores 0,2), mild (3,5), moderate (6,8), and severe (,9).
The prevalence of allodynia among migraineurs was 63.2%.
Severe CA occurred in 20.4% of migraineurs.
CA was associated with migraine defining features (eg, unilateral pain: odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.0,2.4; throbbing pain: odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.1,2.6; nausea: odds ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.1,2.6), as well as illness duration, attack frequency, and disability.
Interpretation
The Allodynia Symptom Checklist measures overall allodynia and subtypes.
CA affects 63% of migraineurs in the population and is associated with frequency, severity, disability, and associated symptoms of migraine.
CA maps onto migraine biology.
Ann Neurol 2007
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Monuments and Texts: Antiquarianism and the Beauty of Antiquity

ART HISTORY, Issue 4 2002Maria Grazia Lolla
Maria Grazia Lolla has published articles in English and Italian on various aspects of antiquarianism, aesthetics and eighteenth,century culture, as well as on Caribbean poetry and literature.
She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, has been awarded fellowships from the British Council and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has held research fellowships at the Wesleyan University Center for the Humanities and the Huntington Library.
Now at work on Rivers Unknown to Song: Antiquarian Explorations of the East and West Indies, she is an adjunct professor at New York University.
From the beginning of the Renaissance antiquaries had been publishing monuments at such a pace that publishing as much as collecting or studying monuments could be counted amongst the defining features of antiquarianism.
However widely and routinely practised, the publication of monuments revealed substantial divisions within the world of antiquarianism.
Antiquaries were faced with the choice of either textualizing monuments , turning monuments from visual or tactile objects into reading material , or attempting to reproduce their materiality , even if the monument was a text.
The paper analyses Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Monumenti antichi inediti (1767) as a significant example of the former and the discussion concerning the publication of Domesday Book that took place in the rooms of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1768 as a compelling example of the latter.
Juxtaposed to one another, Monumenti antichi inediti and the projected facsimile of the Domesday Book provide mutually revealing accounts of the aesthetic and intellectual complexities of eighteenth,century antiquarian practice.
Where Winckelmann patently sought to rid monuments of their materiality in an effort, perhaps, to nobilitate antiquarianism , while nevertheless keeping it in a suitably ancillary position to literature , the fellows of the Society of Antiquaries chose the facsimile as the vehicle of preservation and transmission best suited to conveying their admiration of texts as material objects, indeed, as non,representational art.
As necessarily (and self,consciously) imperfect attempts to reproduce original monuments, facsimiles provide both a marker of deep scepticism about the possibility of ever really knowing the past and a precious trace of past versions of the past , of what could be seen and deemed worthy of preservation, scholarly investigation and aesthetic appreciation.
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